By Connie Davis Bushey
News Editor, Baptist and Reflector

CROSSVILLE — “Sixty-five percent of all Christian men look at pornography weekly. This is an epidemic in the church,” said Andy Loomis, a therapist of Cumberland Plateau Baptist Association based here.

“And it’s hard to approach because most men will not tell their pastors because they’re afraid of how they’ll be looked at. … Nobody wants to talk about it.”

Of course, the main person they are hiding it from is their wife and then their family and God, he reported.

Many men are leading two separate lives, said Loomis. And even Christian men can do this because viewing pornography is “minimized” by society though they are living a life filled with sexual fantasies and lust. Porn also is readily available, just “one or two clicks away on the computer” in every home, he added. [Read more…]

By Connie Davis Bushey
News Editor, Baptist and Reflector

KINGSTON SPRINGS — Human trafficking may be a new view of girls and women coerced into a 21st century version of prostitution, or it may be girls and women kidnapped and transported from another country and forced into sexual slavery.

Whichever form of human trafficking it is, more and more people, mainly females, are becoming victims and being trafficked in Tennessee, said a Baptist pastor, law enforcement officials, and an organization leader. They led the Cheatham County Human Trafficking Awareness Night held here on April 2. The event was developed by Mark Sheldon, pastor, Westview Baptist Church, Kingston Springs, and Cheatham County Sheriff Mike Breedlove. Other speakers were Margie Quin of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, based in Nashville, and Ashleigh Chapman of the Alliance for Freedom, Restoration, and Justice, based in Franklin. [Read more…]

By Chris Turner
Director of Communications, TBC

Editor’s Note: This issue contains articles and related columns about the growing addiction problem facing our state.

NASHVILLE — Tommy Farmer has been dealing in drugs for 17 years. Like anyone involved in drugs, he’s had a lot of lows. [Read more…]

By Baptist and Reflector

BRENTWOOD — Tennessee Baptist Convention churches gave $2,480,805 through the Cooperative Program in February.

After five months of the current fiscal year, Tennessee Baptists have given $13,610,450. The amount is $239,406 or 1.7 percent below what was given at the same time last year. The total also is $660,384 or 4.63 percent below budget needs.

“We are grateful that our Tennessee Baptist churches are faithful and generous in their support of Great Commission missions and ministry work in their own backyard and across our globe,” observed Randy C. Davis, TBC executive director/treasurer.

“Though we are behind in our budget for the year I remain confident that Tennessee Baptists will rise to the challenge of funding mission and ministry needs in Tennessee and around the world,” he said.

By Tim Ellsworth
Union University News Office

JACKSON — Union University trustees approved a $91.1 million operating budget for 2015-2016 at their April 10 meeting and elected Lisa Williams Rogers as the next board chair, the first woman ever to hold that position in the university’s history.

Rogers, a 1983 Union graduate and a physician in obstetrics and gynecology with the Jackson Clinic, will replace Norm Hill, who steps aside after serving as board chair for three years. Rogers is in her 15th year of service as a Union trustee. [Read more…]

By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector

ALPHARETTA, Ga. — The “pastor’s heart” in Kevin Ezell would not let him say no when Long Hollow Baptist Church in Hendersonville asked him to serve as their interim pastor.

The North American Mission Board president had intentionally not taken any interims after he joined NAMB in September of 2010 although he has filled the pulpit on occasion at First Baptist Church in Alpharetta, Ga., where he is a member.

With as much traveling as he does for NAMB, he felt interims would put “too much wear and tear on his family.”

Yet, the offer from Long Hollow was one he had to consider.

Long Hollow lost their pastor David Landrith last November after his gallant fight with cancer. [Read more…]

By Randy C. Davis
TBC Executive Director

BRENTWOOD – During his report to the Executive Board of the Tennessee Baptist Convention at its March 25 meeting, Executive Director Randy C. Davis reflected on the past five years.

“It was five years ago this spring that God started preparing Jeanne and me to leave our beloved pastorate and begin ministry from a different place with a different perspective,” he said. [Read more…]

By Baptist and Reflector

GATLINBURG — On March 21 Vickie Anderson was installed as executive director-treasurer, Tennessee Woman’s Missionary Union, as part of the Missions Get-Together held here.

Anderson began serving in the role Jan. 1, succeeding Candy Phillips. Anderson, who formerly was missions growth/leadership development specialist, has served on the staff for 21 years. [Read more…]